Arkansas assistant Mike Anderson, a former Tulsa point guard, is reportedly on the list of candidates, plus current Tulsa assistant John Phillips, who has been at Tulsa the past four seasons and is popular with the players.

So far there's been no mention of Kansas assistant Joe Holladay on Tulsa's wish list. Holladay is a former high school coach and athletics director in Tulsa and was mentioned in Tulsa media reports last year when Tulsa AD Judy MacLeod needed a replacement for Bill Self.

Self headed to Illinois last summer after two years at UT.

"Do we want to go through this all the time? No, that would not be our choice," MacLeod said. "But if it's because we're having lots of success, I'd rather have this than the opposite."

During the past 16 years, Nolan Richardson, Tubby Smith, Steve Robinson and Bill Self have left the private university of 4,100 students for better jobs. Richardson and Smith went on to win national titles, at Arkansas and Kentucky, respectively.

MacLeod said Tulsa would never have hired Peterson if it had known he would only stay nine months. But she said longevity will never be the university's sole consideration for a new coach.

"It will go into our thinking, but we want to find the best person we possibly can for the job," she said.